By Phyllis Chesler

So, there I am, sitting in what I had hoped might be an escape movie when I realized that I was watching one more extended Hollywood commercial against the war in Iraq. Alright, it’s a free country for those who’ve got money to burn and this movie, “The Valley of Elah,” was brilliantly acted by three Academy-Award winners: Tommie Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon.

War is hell and it wounds both the victims and perpetrators; this is the film’s focus. War robs human beings of both their humanity and their sanity. Soldiers and combatants become less-than-human; many can never recover from this infernal assault. What war makes people do is something they cannot easily, if ever, recover from. This is the film‘s major point. At film’s end, Jones hoists the American flag upside down to signify that American foreign policy and the armed forces are “upside down,” screwed up, and that we need to be rescued from ourselves.

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by William Bache*

The President of the United States expressed his desire to build a democratic Iraq that could serve as an example to the rest of the Arab and Islamic nations. The American military was the instrument chosen to build an Iraqi security structure that could fight terrorism and still promote ethical leaders and democratic values. However, efforts to transfer American military values to Iraq have been a failure. The leaders of the Iraqi Joint Security Forces have politely listened to what the Americans have determined is best for them and then have gone back to doing what they feel is best for them—namely situational leadership, corruption, and human rights violations.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

The number of American troops and Iraqi civilians killed in the war fell in September to levels not seen in more than a year. The U.S. military said the lower count was at least partly a result of new strategies and 30,000 additional U.S. forces deployed this year. …

More dramatic, however, was the decline in Iraqi civilian, police and military deaths. The figure was 988 in September — 50 percent lower than the previous month and the lowest tally since June 2006, when 847 Iraqis died. …

- AP, 10/1/07

Despite the constant bad news, there have been indications that the troop surge is helping to stabilize Iraq. But politicians like Joe Biden haven’t let facts get in the way. He’s thrown gasoline on the fire, suggesting Iraq be Balkanized into Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni regions. Even the top Democratic contenders for the 2008 presidential race have “conceded [that] they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013,” affirming how important Iraq’s stability is to the American people. Biden is already back-peddling:

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by Bill Levinson

There is an outstanding scene in one of the Karate Kid movies in which a corrupt martial arts instructor’s students finally recognize his dishonesty and lack of character, throw their belts at his feet, and walk away in disgust. Almost half of the Senate’s Democrats and two thirds of the House’s Democrats have just done the same with MoveOn.org. These include former MoveOn.org candidates Bob Casey (PA), Bill Nelson (FL), Patrick Murphy (PA-08) and Nick Lampson (TX-22). This is the long-awaited break in the ranks that marks the end of MoveOn.org. It shows that many if not most Democrats are now more afraid of public opinion and common decency than they are of MoveOn.org’s organizing capabilities and George Soros’ money.

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by Ibrahim Al-Marashi*

In 1921, the Iraqi Army was established in the British mandate, which had weak democratic institutions at the time of the first insurgency. The Iraqi public saw that its destiny was controlled by the British, whom it believed sought to exploit the country’s natural resources. In a backlash of nationalism, the public projected its aspirations for complete independence on the growing army. After 2003, the Americans reestablished an army in a state with weak democratic institutions during a period of civil internal conflict, and 82 years after the British mandate, the United States controlled Iraq’s destiny. Both the United Kingdom and the United States faced the same difficulties and produced the same reactions among the Iraqi public as they tried to create an Iraqi Army from “scratch.”

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013. …

- CNN, 9/27/07

This is the saving grace of American politics: the overwhelming power of the center; the adaptability of a naturally self-correcting system. If this were not the case, then certainly the top Democrats debating last night in New Hampshire would have continued to cater to their far-left constituency, and demanded the immediate pull-out of American troops from Iraq. No doubt we’ll here cries from the loony-left about how they’ve been “betrayed.” Here are the top Democratic contenders in their own words:

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by Bill Levinson

Nowhere do we see “Senator” or “Representative” in front of David Petraeus’ name. General Petraeus did not get a vote on “A joint resolution to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq” in late 2002. As a soldier, he has merely carried out the lawful orders he received from our civilian government. The fact that Hillary Clinton voted to give him and other soldiers those orders, but has now joined MoveOn.org in attacking his personal character, proves her unfit to direct our Armed Forces in any capacity whatsoever.

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by Joseph Puder*

Alireza Jafarzadeh, president of Washington-based Strategic Policy Consulting and spokesperson for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), was the guest of the Middle East Forum at Philadelphia’s Cozen O’Connor law offices last Wednesday over lunch. Bob Guzzardi, chairman of the Middle East Forum, introduced Jafarzadeh, who used his visit with the Middle East Forum to promote his new book, The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis.

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Obama calls resolution to support Petraeus “empty politics”

by Bill Levinson

Senate Approves Resolution Denouncing MoveOn.org Ad reports,

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — The Senate approved a resolution on Thursday denouncing the liberal antiwar group MoveOn.org over an advertisement that questioned the credibility of Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq.

…Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, both Democratic candidates for president, voted against the resolution, which passed 72 to 25.

…Mr. Obama issued a statement calling the resolution, put forward by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, “a stunt.” Mr. Obama said, “By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against these empty politics.”

Res Ipsa Loquitur, the thing speaks for itself. Here is the roll call vote that shows who voted to support the Armed Forces of the United States, and who chose to stand with the anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic hate group MoveOn.org in defaming a distinguished four star general and gentleman.

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By Bill Levinson

It is a well known principle from anthropology that someone who can name a person or thing controls that person or thing. To do so, however, requires considerable skill and experience. The name that MoveOn.org applied to General David Petraeus, “General Betray Us,” could have come from any grade school’s sandbox, and it will no more stick to this distinguished soldier than water will adhere to Teflon.

Not only did MoveOn.org publish a defamatory advertisement that made the worst possible accusations–lying and betrayal–against a distinguished military officer, MoveOn.org’s Executive Director, Eli Pariser, stood behind the ad while the Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas dismissed the ad as a nonissue. Although Markos Moulitsas deserves a little credit for not overtly backing the ad, he failed to denounce it. Eli Pariser then went on to accuse General Petraeus of “spinning the facts,” thus reiterating his accusation of lying. Whom do you believe: the West Point graduate and leader of character with four stars on each shoulder and numerous service ribbons on his chest, or the proven liar?

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by Bill Levinson

(A letter with similar content was sent to njdc “at” njdc.org and nynjdc “at” njdc.org (Wed, 12 Sep 2007 ))

Last week, MoveOn.org published a defamatory advertisement (http://pol.moveon.org/petraeus.html) in the New York Times. The advertisement makes accusations that would be insulting to any lady or gentleman of character, but especially to a serving military officer who follows a very strict code of honor.

MoveOn.org’s propaganda, like its derogatory cartoon of Pope Benedict waving a gavel in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, along with the anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic hate speech it promoted on its now-disgraced Action Forum, is admittedly less than competent. MoveOn.org took a very dignified picture of a gentleman with four stars on his shoulder, army skill badges that include Parachutist and Air Assault, and numerous service ribbons, and applied a name that any child in a grade school playground could develop. Now let’s take a look at MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser, the individual behind all this.

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By Barry Rubin

Everybody in Washington has been waiting for General David H. Petraeaus to give his report on the Iraq war. Expectations became most inflated, as if he would deliver America of this seemingly unsolvable problem in a messianic manner.

Now Petraeaus has spoken and he has done a pretty good job. There are some major paradoxes in his analysis and prescription but given the nature of the issue that was certainly inevitable.

For Democrats, eager to have an American withdrawal from Iraq, Petraeaus became something of a trap. To show they were patriotic and supported the troops, congressional Democrats praised Petraeaus. Now, however, disliking some of the things he said, they look rather craven trying to find ways to criticize him.

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By Kamal Nawash

Recently, several reports by various military experts have painted a grim picture of Iraq. The assessments differ in key conclusions, however all the experts, including Gen. David Petraeus and former Gen. James Jones agree that Iraqi forces are currently unable to take over security operations from American troops. While this assessment may be disappointing to many Americans, the Free Muslims Coalition believes that Iraqi forces’ inability to takeover security operations may be the only leverage the United States has to facilitate reconciliation and a political solution between the parties in Iraq.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Ramadi is one of Iraq’s success stories. Can the U.S. and Iraqis leverage this lesson into future successes? From the Times Online:

How life returned to the streets in a showpiece city that drove out al-Qaeda
An American ‘martyr’ is being hailed in the Sunni Triangle for restoring peace to a town where soldiers now fight only water leaks

…Captain Patriquin played a little-known but crucial role in one of the few American success stories of the Iraq war.

He helped to convert Ramadi from one of Iraq’s deadliest cities into arguably the safest outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish north. This graveyard for hundreds of American soldiers, which a Marine Corps intelligence report wrote off as a lost cause just a year ago, is where the US military now takes visiting senators, and journalists such as myself, to show the progress it is making. Ramadi will be Exhibit A when General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, appears before Congress in two weeks’ time to argue that the country as a whole should not be written off.

In Ramadi last weekend I did things unthinkable almost anywhere else in this violent country. I walked through the main souk without body armour, talking to ordinary Iraqis. Late one evening I strolled into the brightly lit Jamiah district of the city with Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Turner, the tobacco-chewing US marine in charge of central Ramadi, to buy kebabs from an outdoor restaurant – “It’s safer than London or New York,” Colonel Turner assured me. …

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by Andrew Garfield*

Defeat of the insurgency and terrorism in Iraq requires not only a military approach but also a political component. Although the “surge” may stabilize parts of Iraq and reduce the level of violence while the additional troops remain in place, long-term stability requires a more holistic approach.

Frank Kitson, a retired British military officer whose writings influenced British operations in Northern Ireland, argues that the “main characteristic that distinguishes campaigns of insurgency from other forms of war is that they are primarily concerned with the struggle for men’s minds.”[1] To defeat the insurgency, coalition forces must persuade the Iraqi population to reject extremism and deny safe haven to those fighting the new Iraqi political order. This will require dialogue, inducements, and the proportionate use of force to win the battle for “hearts and minds.”

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